


The Truths We Live With

by timeless_alice



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Torture, Minimus Misses His Brother, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-06-17 09:38:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15458517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/timeless_alice/pseuds/timeless_alice
Summary: Minimus takes a moment to say goodbye to Dominus and dwell on things.Set post-Dying Of The Light





	The Truths We Live With

After the dust had settled, Minimus - the irreducible Minimus - allowed himself time to be alone with Dominus. What remained of him, at least. The others had, graciously, granted him privacy, and he wasn't exactly sure he preferred it that way. The presence of others made it easier for him to keep emotions in check, to keep on the mask of the unflappable lawman.

But alone, in this situation, he wasn't sure he could keep the illusion up.

He trailed a hand along Dominus' form, fingers tracing torn metal and exposed circuitry with a dull ache in his spark. The Decepticon Justice Division had always been brutal, he had known that, but as his memory banks recalled the reports he had received from Fort Max on _Domestication_ , what set in was some deeper, more primal horror. Captured Transformers reduced to nothing more than an animal for the entertainment and cruelty of others. The concept alone had been enough to chill Minimus' circuits, but facing it as he was, that was a different matter entirely.

After millions of years of separation, millions of years of being so sure that Dominus had been killed, nothing could have prepared him for the truth that split the world in two. There was a part of him that wished he had stayed ignorant. The pieces on their own had been easy to string together: a spy in the DJD, a sudden replacement at the end of the war, and a new "pet" in the ranks. But it only raised questions, none of which Minimus enjoyed lingering on, even if his thoughts insisted on circling back to them. How was he caught. How long had he been trapped in the form he loathed so much. And worst of them: how had they made him suffer in the Before and the After. He knew what the DJD did, their methods of torture and general M.O.s, but applying that knowledge to his brother...

Minimus sat. He had to, a shaking having overcome his small frame as he imagined his brother tortured. Mutilated. Suffering in unspeakable ways that he would never know for sure, because all of the DJD's members were dead. There was no one to answer for what they had done to Dominus. On some level, Minimus wanted to direct the festering anger he felt at Prowl, for sending Dominus into such a dangerous situation and then never rescuing him once he'd been found. But he knew, under all the subjective feelings of a hurt sibling who missed his brother, that there was nothing that could have been done. Dominus had made his choice, even if it was a stupid, reckless, and thoughtless one, and the situation was one that promised no rescue.

There was no rescue from the DJD, that was just a plain fact.

"You idiot," Minimus said, softly, watching Dominus' body as if doing so would bring him back to life. As if at any moment he would spring up and transform, and this was just a ruse to get under Minimus' alloy. But that wasn't going to happen. Dominus was gone. There was something awful in the anticlimax of his death.

Dominus, the great philanthropist and scientist and on and on (Minimus still felt a prickle of annoyance at how much of an overachiever Dominus had been), dying in obscurity. Minimus wondered if he would even be able to share what had happened- would it be better for those who didn't know to remain in the dark, or if they should know. On one hand, no one would be waiting for him to come back, but on the other...it ran the risk of his reputation being ruined. Dominus was a spy, and that meant he must have taken part in the tortures of the DJD, just to keep cover. And unless a fake story was constructed to circumvent that, who knew how the people of Cybertron would react.

Minimus sighed, loudly. His hands clasped between his knees, and he finally pulled his gaze away from his brother's still form. He carefully shut down lingering thoughts about how much pain he must have been in, at the end. "If you weren't going to tell me," he said. "You should at least have said _something_  to Rewind. Anything." There was some anger there, and he wasn't sure it was entirely justified. For all intents and purposes, Dominus would not have been able to tell anyone, or else he would risk losing his cover. Prowl had probably sworn him to secrecy, but Minimus couldn't really find it within himself to pin much blame on Prowl. His actions, at least in this case, made sense. It was on Dominus for not even making up a lie.

"He's happy, you know." Minimus wasn't exactly sure why he was continuing. Dominus couldn't talk back. There was a part of Minimus that felt like he had to do it, had to say something to fill the empty air. To let Dominus in on all the things he had missed out on, through the millions of years of war. "Rewind. You left him without a word, and he searched for you. For millions of years, Dom. But he found someone else in the interim." He paused, and added in a very quiet voice, "I think you would have liked him. He's a good fit for Rewind, if you ask me." There was a part of him that wanted to add 'better than you,' but that was on a level of petty that didn't seem appropriate. He could imagine Verity Carlo looking into his thoughts and making fun of him for the blatant "younger sibling behavior" that she had often accused Twin Twist of.

He pushed all those thoughts aside. They were unnecessary. Just attempts at ignoring the tragedy of the situation and the mourning that tugged at his processor. He didn't want to believe Dominus was dead, not in this way, not really. He had come to terms with the possibility, the likelihood even, of his death so long ago, it hardly seemed fair to him that his perception should be changed in such a cruel way. But such was the way of the war, he figured. 

"I wish you were still here." The words slipped out before he could stop it. Sadness crept in, and the last of his  stern mask crumbled away, leaving behind a little brother who missed his brother more than anything else. "I wish you were here so I could...I don't know. Hit you. Yell at you for being an idiot and not telling anyone." A sigh, barely perceptible. "But you aren't, and I'm talking to a corpse."

If he wanted to,  and to some degree he did, he could confer with Prowl to make up a vague timeline as to when they lost contact with their DJD spy. To figure out a timeline to how long Dominus was stuck like this. But in the end it wouldn't matter. What had happened, had happened, and it was all over now. Dwelling would only hurt him more.

"I miss you, Dom," he said, suddenly. An admission he wouldn't let the others hear, for desire to keep the entire situation at arms length. Letting the others know that he was truly affected by the situation, cut deep to the spark, would be a blow to the entire persona he had cultivated onboard the Lost Light. Though he was sure that any of the more perceptive members of the group -perhaps the likes of Rewind, or Nautica - would notice the cracks in his armor. He wasn't sure how he felt about that.

"However, I'm sure I'd just tell you to shut up after about five minutes if you were still here," he said, trying to inject humor into his words (for any given definition of "humor" for him). 

Dominus lay still. Unresponsive. Dull in death as if light had never settled into the body in the first place; just an empty shell of what used to be. Minimus could no longer fill the air between them, could no longer take the sight of what had become of Dominus. The oppressive weight of this knowledge and image sat atop his shoulders, an oppressive mass that doubled with each passing second until he folded underneath it. 

He stood. He straightened his back, squared his shoulders, fought with all his might to slip back into his familiar mask so he could return to the others, before he took too long and they took it upon themselves to check in on him. With a final soft, sad sigh, he looked at Dominus. Just stared, for a few long moments, before saying, in a gentle and quiet voice, "Goodbye, Dom. I hope to see you again someday."

**Author's Note:**

> hello I have a lot of feelings on the ambus siblings :)
> 
> I'm timelessmulder over on tumblr


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